Closing the Circle: From Television to the Written Word

 

Saul from "Better Call Saul"

I think that most readers of crime/detective fiction are also big fans of television series based on their favorite reading or offering similar themes and settings. I know I am.

I still remember how completely taken I was by the HBO series The Sopranos back in the day when that kind of programming was still a relative rarity. As soon as that one was done - a whole year between seasons drove me crazy - I was looking for another series to feel that way about and luckily came upon Breaking Bad. Then Breaking Bad spawned the spinoff series of its own called Better Call Saul. Well, you get the idea. 

That's why I was pleased to see a short piece from the website Novel Suspects (if you don't know that website, you really ought to take a look at it at this link) that highlights a few books you should consider if "you loved Better Call Saul." 

The list includes one true crime title, two crime novels, and one blend of fact and fiction labeled a "true crime novel," something for every taste, and closing the circle from television series to the written word. 

Click Here for Novel Suspects Article

The "true crime novel" on the list

International Television Crime Series - Part 2

More of my favorite television series from around the world:

Astrid (Called Astrid et Raphaëlle in France) 

French with subtitles

One Season (9 episodes in total) with more to come

Premise: Astrid Nielsen, who has Asperger's syndrome, maintains the evidence and case files in the judicial police library. She has an incredible memory and uses her own brand of logic to solve puzzles, so the police district commander decides to have her take a look at a number of cold cases. She is partnered with Raphaëlle, and their relationship is half the fun. Great characters. Good mysteries.

Starring: Sara Mortensen, Lola Dewaere, and Benoit Michel

My Rating: 5 Stars

Guilt

British (PBS/Masterpiece)

One Season (4 episodes in total)

Premise: Two very different brothers, one wealthy and successful, the other barely scraping by as a record shop owner, get themselves into big trouble one night when they accidentally run over a pedestrian on a quiet residential street. Their attempt to cover up their involvement in the old man's death takes numerous twists and turns. Quirky, fun, sometimes funny, this one will suck you right in.

Starring: Mark Bonnar (a personal favorite), Jamie Sives, and Ruth Bradley

My Rating: 4 stars

DCI Banks

British

5 Seasons plus the pilot (32 episodes in total)

Premise: Based on the long Inspector Banks series by author Peter Robinson, this is a character-driven series of police procedurals headed up by a man who fled London police work for a quieter career. Looks like he was wrong about that...of course.

Starring: Stephen Tompkinson and Andrea Lowe

My Rating: 3 Stars

Bloodlands

British

One Season (4 episodes in total)

Premise: A police detective is charged with investigating a series of disappearances that occurred almost 20 years earlier during Northern Irelands violent and bloody past. One of the people who disappeared was his own wife, and when people around the investigation begin to die, the detective knows he is getting close to finding those responsible. The main character is always interesting, but this one is very dark.

Starring: James Nesbitt, Lorcan Cranitch, and Charlene McKenna

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Elizabeth Is Missing

British (PBS/Masterpiece)

One 87-minute movie

Premise: An old woman, who is moving deeper and deeper into dementia, worries that something bad has happened to her missing friend, Elizabeth. She begins looking for clues on her own but her old memories get confused with her present day investigation to the extent that she starts inadvertently recovering clues to her sister's disappearance of decades earlier. She needs to solve both mysteries before her own mind makes it too late for that to ever happen. It's a race against the clock and calendar. 

Starring: Glenda Jackson (a personal favorite), Helen Behan, and Sophie Rundle

My Rating: 5 Stars

Bäckström

Swedish with subtitles

One Season (6 episodes total)

Premise: By this point in his career, Bäckström is as much a national TV star in Sweden as he is a police investigator. He has become everyone's go-to guy for TV interviews that television commentators love to do when fresh crimes are being speculated about. This time he is investigating one of the strangest murders he's ever run across during his long career: the skull of a recent murder victim has been uncovered but the victim is known to have died years earlier. Great characters.

Starring: Kjell Bergqvist, Agnes Lindström Bolmgren, and Livia Millhagan 

My Rating: 4 Stars

International Television Crime Series - Part 1

Like so many of you, I am almost as big a fan of international crime television series as I am of published crime fiction. The interesting thing to me is how much the television shows and the books overlap...although  when that happens, I always end up preferring the books to the television.

Here are some of the television series from around the world that I have either already enjoyed or am still in the process of enjoying:

Agathe Koltès

French with subtitles

One Season  (10 episodes total)

Premise: Big city cop comes to coastal village to join the local police force commanded by her daughter, who resents her. Their relationship is kept secret from everyone else...until it slips out. 

Starring: Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu and Hortense Gélinet 

My Rating: 4 Stars

Blood

Irish/British

Two Seasons (12 episodes total)

Premise: A young woman becomes convinced that her father had something to do with her mother's sudden death.

Starring: Adrian Dunbar and Carolina Main. 

My Rating: 5 stars Season 1, 4 stars Season 2

Bosch

American

Seven Seasons (68 episodes total)

Premise: LA cop Harry Bosch refuses to play by the rules but he is the best detective in the precinct. Based on the Michael Connelly Bosch series. 

Starring: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Lance Reddick, and Madison Lintz.

My Rating: 5 Stars for all seasons

Tin Star

British

Three Seasons (25 episodes total)

Premise: Former London cop takes a job as chief of police in small town Canada. It all begins innocently enough before his past catches up with him and all hell breaks loose.

Starring: Tim Roth, Genevieve O'Reilly, Christina Hendricks, and Abigail Lawrie.

My Rating: 5 Stars for Seasons One and Two 

The Long Call

British

One Season (4 episodes total)

Premise: To be with his partner, a gay policeman returns to the town from which he was ostracized years earlier by a fundamentalist religious cult. His past haunts him daily. (Based on the Ann Cleeves novel)

Starring: Ben Aldridge, Declan Bennett, Sarah Gordy, Anita Dobson, and Siobhán Cullen.

My Rating: 3 Stars

The Blood Pact

Dutch series with subtitles

Three Seasons (30 total episodes)

Premise: A mobster recently released from prison coerces a Dutch tax official into helping him solve his money problems. Their eventual bonding surprises both of them.

Starring: Barry Atsma, Georgina Verbaan, and Jacob Derwig. 

My Rating:  A solid 5 all the way through

As much for my own record-keeping and memory-jogging as for anything else, I'm going to add to this original group of favorite television series as time allows. In the meantime, I hope some of you find something here that you might enjoy. Too, please feel free to recommend your own favorite TV series in any comments you post below.